Personal watercraft continue to gain immerse popularity among water recreation enthusiasts. A personal watercraft (PWC), or sea scooter, is a recreational watercraft which supports a seated or standing rider. PWCs generally include an inboard engine which drives a pump jet that has a screw-shaped impeller which creates thrust for propulsion and steering. These watercraft are often referred by the tradenames WaveRunner, Jet Ski, or Sea-Doo, which are brand names owned by PWC manufacturers Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Bombardier, respectively.
Because of their relatively low cost and freedom and enjoyment they afford to owners, PWC are widely used for recreation. Most PWCs are designed to seat two or three people, though four-passenger models also exist. Stand-up PWCs were the first to see mass production and are still popular for single riders.
PWCs are typically transported from a home to a body of water by means of a simple utility trailer coupled to an automobile, sports utility vehicle or the like. Some utility trailers are specially designed to haul two PWCs in a side by side relationship.
An offshoot of the PWC market has been the development of high end recreational trailers and luxury motorhomes commonly know as “toy haulers”. A toy hauler, also known as a sport utility trailer (SUT), “toy box”, “gear box”, “sport utility RV” (SURV), and “ramp trailer”, is a large, sometimes motorized recreational vehicle which combines living quarters with cargo space. The cargo space is usually sufficiently ample for hauling such recreational gear as PWCs, dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcycles, mountain bikes, snowmobiles, kayaks and/or canoes.
In a typical toy hauler, a front portion thereof provides comfortable living quarters, which may be similar to the living quarters found in a conventional motorhome, and a rear portion thereof provides cargo space for containing the recreational gear. A ramp is provided at the back end of the toy hauler to facilitate loading of recreational gear into the cargo space.
Unfortunately, it is quite cumbersome to load a pair of conventional PWCs into the rear portion of a toy hauler in a side-by-side relationship. Although many older model PWCs can be somewhat narrow in width, many of the relatively later model PWCs are heavier, bulkier and generally wider than their progenitors. A typical toy hauler rear portion has a useable cargo space having a width of only about 93 inches, making it difficult to contain a pair of side-by-side PWCs mounted on a smaller trailer which commonly have a collective width of up to about 102 inches.
More convenient, easier to use systems for loading, launching, transporting and/or storing these watercraft and other recreational vehicles are needed.